Friday, 11 July 2014

Gaming, fangirling & obsessing

By: V.

Hi guys,

So you probably don’t know, but gaming has always been
a hobby of mine for the longest time. But I have always kept it kind of
“oldschool” playing the old classics (Diablo 2, AoE, NFS etc.). So there is no
point in calling myself a true gamer because I’m not- at least
I don’t consider myself one. (I just wanted to get it out there.)

Anyways, recently I started playing Dota 2 and it was
suggested to me by my friend that I should do a post on my Dota 2 experience as
a newcomer. At first I didn’t want to, I thought that there wasn’t really much
to say, but after giving it a consideration- there is actually a lot. So why not do it, right?

So let me
begin.

The game was recommended to me by my friend and many
of my classmates. I played a few times, trained with bots at first, but the
reason I really got into the game was the “dota community” that was introduced
to me (not personally of course). It all began with pro-team players and
casters- and who would have ever thought that gamers could be that cute/hot/handsome/you
name it… So I continued to watch them play and that really showed me what a
great game dota is. You sure learn a lot just by watching. I quickly picked my
favorite teams and casters, and stalked them for hours, not to mention my
“fangirling”. (I felt creepy a lot, trust me. :D)

All that motivated me to play it more, so I started playing
with people instead of bots and the first game was a complete fail…sigh. :D
After another few games I learnt that everybody wants to report you, everybody
blames the teammates for every lost game, no one ever listens to you, you die a
lot and then some more, you get to be called noob a lot and there are so many
leavers that will just disconnect from the game when things get rough. Not a
very nice first experience, right? :D But I was fully expecting it to be so.
After all- we all know those people throughout the internet as well.

Then last month I
watched ESL One Frankfurt 2014 (it’s ESL arranget tournament for dota 2). I literally spent the whole Saturday behind my laptop watching all the matches and messaging with D. on facebook about it. It was so fun. And being a total beginner to dota (and a girl) I always checked photos of every team's player and then cheered for my favorites. (Don't judge- I knew neither the strategies nor all the heroes yet :D.)

And so my obsession
has begun. Even nowadays I’m watching The international tournament (big Dota
2 event where the best teams compete for the dota 2 championship) and I’ve been enjoying it so far (except for
the fact, that my favorite team is losing so much). I’m still playing, learning
to play better, trying out new heroes and stuff. Still long way to go to play
decently...